I was doing a bit of reading today on thujone, and ran across this article. If you don't have a NEJM subscription, here's another link with some of the article quoted. Apparantly some fellow confused wormwood essential oil with absinthe! He drank about 10 ml of wormwood essential oil, and landed in the hospital for days with thujone poisoning.
Real absinthe is a pale green liquer flavored with anise, wormwood, fennel, lemon balm, and various other herbs. In the late 1800s it was all the rage, and notable figures like Oscar Wilde, Van Gogh, Tolouse-Lautrec and Picasso consumed it. Apparantly it had some interesting hallucinogenic and consciousness-altering effects beyond those of strong alchol, which added to its popularity. Unfortunately long-term consumption of absinthe causes seizures and brain damage. The dangerous ingredient was identified to be alpha-thujone from the wormwood, and absinthe was banned in most of Europe and the US.
So, the idjut in the aforementioned article was trying to reproduce a banned drink. And, surprise...surprise, he bought the wormwood oil over the internet. Where else can you buy toxins with no questions asked? The guy who drank the oil is simply a failed example of evolution in action, but the seller has no excuse. Sellers like this give aromatherapy a bad name. I have a friend who sells essential oils over the internet and she was disgusted by the whole affair because she's so careful to warm people if oils are unsafe for certain uses.
Buyer beware. If there aren't any warnings anywhere on an aromatherapy website, the person selling the oils probably doesn't have a clue and neither does the potential buyer.
11:29:41 PM 
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